“The
film blurs the line between comedy and epic drama so adroitly
that the two styles fuse into something quite original:
a lyrical farce that pays homage to its period.”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“… It [the film] never flags or looses its
balance, and despite the theatricality of the staging
and the acting, it’s precisely the materiality of
cinema – the crowds on the street, the wooded road
at night where the Nazis chase the French – that
makes us devour it with pleasure.” David Denby,
The New Yorker

Set in June
1940 when Germany invaded France, cabinet members, journalists,
physicists, prisoners, and spies of all persuasions gather
at the posh Hotel Splendide in Bordeaux to escape the Nazi
occupation of Paris. In this sophisticated farce, murderous
intrigues, scientific secrets and love affairs flourish, while
elaborate personal schemes and political plots intersect.
A young writer fresh out of prison, Frédéric,
must choose between his first love, a beautiful diva named
Viviane, and an impassioned young scientist, Camille. Camille
is in Bordeaux to help Professor Kopolski hide important scientific
papers from the Germans. Meanwhile, Jean-Etienne Beaufort,
a French government official and Viviane’s lover, elaborates
intricate schemes with the Germans. Alex Winckler, a German
spy posing as an English journalist, mingles among this unlikely
group of characters to gather vital information for the Nazis.
In this multi-layered scenario and fast-paced production,
Jean-Paul Rappeneau explores a pivotal and serious period
from his youth – the turmoil that besieged France at
the beginning of World War II. He does it with the same wit
and humor that he used in A Matter of Resistance.